Latika Bourke

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop is being accused of throwing a "hypocritical, petty dummy spit" and undermining Australia's relations in the Pacific after canning a bipartisan overseas trip that dates back to the Howard government but Ms Bishop says her "packed agenda" is to blame for the cancellation.

The annual cross-party visit has been a tradition ever since it was introduced by Ms Bishop's coalition predecessor Alexander Downer. The new coalition government kept up the convention and invited Labor's Foreign spokespeople Tanya Plibersek and Matt Thistlethwaite on the 2013 trip.

But Labor says it was uninvited from this year's tour as payback over the argument about foreign aid.

In a letter dated March 19, a clearly angry Ms Bishop wrote to Ms Plibersek and said Labor's claims weren't backed up by the official record of the meeting.

"Your false assertions of what was discussed in my meetings with Pacific Leaders, to which you were invited, clearly undermined the bi-partisan spirit of this tour," she wrote.

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And in a handwritten postscript, Ms Bishop adds "Tanya, I am very disappointed you have chosen this path, Julie".

But the minister, who is currently in Papua New Guinea with cabinet ministers David Johnston and Scott Morrison, said the trip didn't take place this year "due to the packed agenda, including the G20 in Brisbane".